Page 16 of Barging In
“Vic!” Jasper shouted, striding towards her. “Get in the car.”
The lights of his white Audi blinked at the far end of the courtyard.
“Where are we going?” she asked as he reached her side.
“I’m taking you home, of course. What the hell happened? A visitor said two women had fallen in the canal. I came to your office to see if you were in yet, only to see you being dragged out of the water through the window. Who fell in with you?”
“Her,” Victoria growled.
“Her?”
Victoria wanted to reply,That infuriating, high-ponytailed woman with the strangely captivating smile who’s doing her best to put me out of business. Instead, she said, “Clem,” as she opened the passenger door.
Jasper reached behind the driver’s seat and pulled out a plastic shopping bag. “Here, sit on this.”
Victoria settled onto the rustling bag. The soggy fabric of her clothes stuck to her, sending a wave of cold through her trembling body with every movement.
Jasper flicked on the heated seat and nudged the climate control up a few degrees. “Maybe it’ll stave off hypothermia. At the very least, it might calm your nipples down.” He nodded towards Victoria’s chest as he pulled out of the car park.
They had caught Clem’s eye, too; she appeared to have been enjoying herself until Victoria felt compelled to interrupt her ogling. If she hadn’t been dripping wet and freezing cold — and if it hadn’t been Clem — she might have enjoyed the attention herself. It had been a long time since an attractive person had cast an eye over her like that. A voice in Victoria’s head snapped:Oh, shut up.She isn’t attractive. She’s infuriating.Worse still, Clemthreatened to bring about her downfall if something wasn’t done about her competing business, and soon.
“Thanks for rescuing me,” Victoria said to Jasper as they idled at a crossing. “I was at a loss for what to do back there.”
“I noticed. So, what happened?”
“She copied our café offer and put her sign in front of ours.”
“And how did that end up with you both going for a swim in the canal?”
“I moved her sign, and we sort of tussled over it,” Victoria muttered with an exasperated sigh. “She lost her balance and grabbed my arm to steady herself, pulling me in with her.”
A smile tugged at the corner of Jasper’s mouth. “You…tussled?”
Victoria pursed her lips, unsure where the amusement lay in what she’d just endured.
“Did you push her?” Jasper asked.
Victoria’s stomach lurched. Had she pushed Clem? She didn’t think so, but everything had happened so fast, she couldn’t be sure. All she could remember was that final moment, when they’d lost to gravity and Clem’s eyes had locked with hers in a mutual panic. They were a deep brown, matching the colour of her hair, and the way they’d fixed on her with such a strange intensity made Victoria’s stomach twist.
“Why didn’t you just move our sign elsewhere?”
“I didn’t really get the chance; plus, that’s the best spot. We can’t obstruct the path with signage, and I couldn’t move it further forward as hers was almost on the towpath,” Victoria replied firmly, recalling the strict rules Mr Armitage enforced to allow them access across the bridge.
“Well, it might’ve saved me from taking you home reeking of canal water,” Jasper muttered, rolling down the window.
“I could have walked.”
“No, you couldn’t.”
He was right. Her brain had stopped working properly, what with the shock and cold setting in.
“What was our sign doing there, anyway, to make her want to block it?” Jasper demanded.
Victoria stared at the hedgerows whizzing by, trying to think of a way to get out of explaining. She couldn’t.
“I told Christine to put a sign out,” she admitted.
She’d hoped Clem would realise she couldn’t compete and leave. To find her still there, and the wharf’s sign blocked with one offering an identical deal, had boiled her blood and, apparently, her brain.
